The present invention relates to a compression device for the anastomosis of hollow organs of the human body, such as parts of the digestive tract.
The use in organs such as the, esophagus of the conventional suture techniques, conventional suturing threads or clipping, is nevertheless affected by a high percentage of immediate and delayed complications, and therefore it has been proposed to use compression devices to carry out the anastomosis of said organs. These devices keep the edges to be anastomosized juxtaposed by compressing their ends. After a certain time has elapsed, outside the compression area a "natural" anastomosis is achieved and the device, consequently to the necrosis of the compressed edges, breaks off and falls inside the intestine, from which it is then evacuated together with the stool. The use of said devices is however at present limited to the most distal tracts of the intestine. In fact, the anatomical arrangement of the organs of the most cranial part of the digestive tract makes it impossible to use these devices due to the great difficulty that, after breaking off from the site of anastomosis, they would encounter in passing such structures as the pylorus sphincter and the ileocecal valve, that are low caliber segments of the digestive tract.
Devices have thus been introduced, the parts of which that are suitable to compress in between the terminal parts of the hollow organs to be connected are made of biodegradable material, whereby said devices are reduced into fragments that can then be more easily expelled with the stool.
This technique is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,835.
The biodegradation rate of said materials varies from individual to individual, and within the same individual according to the different physiological condition implying alteration of the methabolism and, therefore, a change in the rate of the chemical reaction causing the biodegradation. There is therefore a problem in that it can not be precisely forecast how long time will be necessary for the fragments of said devices to be reduced: in fact, it might even occur before or long time after the natural consolidation of the edges of the organs to be anastomized. In both cases disadvantageous conditions would be created: in the first case the surgery would have failed because the holding device would have been fragmented in advance relative to the consolidation, that is no healing of the organs to be anastomized would occur, and in the second case an obstacle would be introduced into the digestive tract in an unforeseable seat and for a longer time than necessary.
Moreover, said devices made of biodegradable material must necessarily have thin walls, thereby exhibiting the draw-back of being very fragile and difficult to manufacture.
It is the purpose of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks by providing a device exhibiting the following advantages:
it is reduced into fragments as soon as the edges of the organs that have been compressed by the device members lose their consistency, that is certainly after the same breaks off from the anastomosis, and therefore after its healing,
it can be made of any material, even a hard one.
A further purpose of the present invention is to provide a device that can be manufactured at a favourable price.